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arXiv · 2306.11831

Simultaneous Single Crystal Growth and Segregation of Ni-Rich Cathode Enabled by Nanoscale Phase Separation for Advanced Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Synthesis of high-performance single crystal LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811) in the absence of molten salt is challenging with no success yet. An innovative drop-in approach is discovered to synthesize single crystal NMC811 by controlling the morphology of transition metal hydroxide TM(OH)2 precursors followed by a simple decomposition step to form transition metal oxide (TMO) intermediates. Ni redistribution in TMO, as a result of the concurrent formation of mixed spinel and rock salt phases, helps deagglomerate the later formed NMC811 clusters of single crystals. As-prepared single crystal NMC811 is validated in a 2Ah pouch cell demonstrating 1000 stable cycling. The fundamentally new reaction mechanism of single crystal growth and segregation without molten salt provides a new direction towards cost-efficient manufacturing of single crystal NMC811 cathode for advanced lithium-based batteries.

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Yujing Bi, Yaobin Xu, Ran Yi, Dianying Liu, Peng Zuo, Jiangtao Hu, Qiuyan Li, Jing Wu, Chongmin Wang, Sha Tan, Enyuan Hu, Jingnan Li, Rebecca O Toole, Liu Luo, Xiaoguang Hao, Subramanian Venkatachalam, Job Rijssenbeek, Jie Xiao. 2023-06-20. Simultaneous Single Crystal Growth and Segregation of Ni-Rich Cathode Enabled by Nanoscale Phase Separation for Advanced Lithium-Ion Batteries. https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.11831

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